


I Will Burn The Heart Out Of You

by ChangeableConsistency



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Imagined Violence, Slut Shaming, You do not want to make Pepper angry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-23 08:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/620317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangeableConsistency/pseuds/ChangeableConsistency
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kink meme prompt that I cannot find, the basic gist is that Tony breaks up with Pepper and she is...<i>not</i> happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Will Burn The Heart Out Of You

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from a Sherlock (BBC) Moriarty quote.

Pepper jerks away from him like she's been slapped, and that's almost what it feels like.

"Pep, I'm sor-"

"No! You don't get to say you're sorry. You don't get to act like this is something you can apologize for, as if it's on _me_ to forgive you!"

"Please, Pepper, I still love you, I do, I'm just not in-"

She screams, an inarticulate sound of rage and she grabs the nearest thing at hand, it shatters satisfyingly against the wall, and she blindly reaches for something else to throw, "FUCK YOU, Tony, just _fuck_ **you**! I've given you _everything_.  Everything. And now you tell me that you love- that you're 'in love' with- Oh, _God_ , how long has this been going on!?"

Tony's holding his hands up in an attempt to pacify her, that and his reasonable tone has her temper ratcheting up even higher, as though she didn't have every right to want to rip out his heart like he has hers, "It's not like that, I swear it didn't start as-"

He has to duck and there's another crash, this time a paperweight shatters her diploma frame, and God _**damn**_ his selfish hide, that's why he tried to drag her out to lunch, to have this conversation in public, where she'd have to keep it together, to be Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, CEO of _the_ premier clean energy company in the world, named one Forbes 'Most Powerful Women in Technology'; and not Pepper Potts, the stupid, _stupid_ , girl who actually thought she was going to spend the rest of her life as Mrs. Tony Stark. 

"How long?" She grits out, "How long have you been fucking someone else in our bed? Is he the only one? Damn it, Tony, how many people have you been screwing behind my back?"

"Jesus, Pep, I swear, I _swear_ , last night was the first time, the only time, and it just... it just _happened_. And I knew I couldn't hide it from you- I didn't _want_ to hide it from you. I love you. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Oh, fuck him. Fuck him to hell and back. She wants to fly at him, rip and tear at him with teeth and nails but she won't. She won't let him turn her into that, into every other sorry sap he's suckered into his bed and then thrown away. She is Pepper God Damned Potts, and she is Not Putting Up With His Shit. Not anymore.

She feels something dark and ugly twist inside her, "No. No, you don't get to say that. You don't get to come in here and destroy me, destroy everything, and then have the utter gall to tell me you still love me. Do have any idea-"

"Pepper," his eyes are damp and he's reaching out to her, "Pep-"

"Shut up. It's my turn now. I sat and I listened to you pour your heart out, make your... your twisted confession, and now it's your turn to listen to me, Tony Stark. You have no idea how hard it's been. How many slimy TMZ reporters I've laughed off. How many 'sympathetic' so called friends tried to warn me away from you. God, my mother, my own _mother_ , never let a phone call or visit go by with out asking me if I was sure, and damn it, every time, every time, I stood up for you, for _us_ ; and now you've gone and proved them all right. I didn't just trust you, Tony... I believed in you. When no one else would, I _believed_ in you."

"Please, Pepper, I'm so s-" he cuts himself off at her glare, another paperweight clenched in her fist, "I didn't... I can't... Please, tell me what to do here; what to say? I'd give anything to go back and change what happened-"

"Which part? Falling in love with him? Or falling out of love with me?"

"Both! Either? Anything. Just... Is there anything I can-"

The darkness swells out of her, overwhelming her, and no part of her wants to stop it, she lets it fill her soul as she says, "Stark Industries."

"Wh.. What? What do you mean? You're CEO, what else do you-"

"Sign over your shares. Your patents. Everything. You can keep Malibu, JARVIS, the bots, and Iron Man. Everything else is mine."

"Pep, I can't, the company needs me-"

" _I_ NEEDED YOU!"

"Pepper, Pepper, please be reasonab-"

"'Reasonable'? You? Want me? To be ' _reasonable_? How's this for ' _reasonable_ ': you sign your shares over to me now, or I call Justin Hammer and sell him mine for a dollar." She pulls up two contracts and starts setting up one to sell her shares, and the other to gut Tony the only way she knows how.

"C'mon Pep, you won't do that, and even if you did he doesn't have the cash at a dollar a share. You wouldn't undercut the company's value that much and you won't give your baby up to that asshole-"

"I wouldn't? My 'baby' has aways had an asshole interfering with it one way or another. And I didn't say a dollar a share. I said, 'a dollar'. As in 'one'."

"Jesus, Pepper, you don't mean it; let's... let's take a day, think about this- What are you doing!?"

She slips on her bluetooth and dials, Justin's PA answering her call as Pepper continues typing rapidly, "Pepper Potts for Justin Hammer."

"He'll be right with you, Ms. Potts," Bonnie hastily assures her.

" I'm sure he will."

"Pepper, wait! You've got to be bluffing?" Tony asks hopefully.

"You've got Hammer, talk to me."

Pepper raises an eyebrow and projects a smile she isn't feeling into her voice, "Justin!"

"Pepper?" Tony pleads.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Ms. Potts?" Hammer asks warily.

"Please, Justin, 'Pepper'." She slides over her tablet, indicating where she wants Tony to sign and add his thumbprint. 

"Pepper, then," Hammer concedes, more warmth entering his voice at her unexpectedly cordial tone.

" _Pepper_?" Tony's finally taking her seriously.

Pepper looks him dead in the eye, "I was calling to-"

"Don't do this."

"-let you know about few changes being made at Stark Industries," She taps her other screen, zooming in on Hammer's name so that it fills her monitor. 

"Okay, okay, it's yours, it's yours," he signs and paces over to the window, arms wrapped around his waist as he watches her. They'll need to redo this with a notary, but if nothing else his pride won't let him back out now.

"Tell me you're ready to take me up on making Gladiator a joint Hammer/Stark venture?"

"I think you mean Stark/Hammer," she says, just to make Tony sweat, getting visceral pleasure out of the panic in his eyes. 

Hammer laughs and, actually, his voice is kind of pleasant and slightly self-deprecating, as if he had anticipated her response and wanted to give her a chance to correct him. It's something she's never noticed before, always overwhelmed with what a selfish, showboating ass he was, but she's put up with Tony for the best years of her life, she should be more practiced at seeing the real vulnerability beneath the bravado. 

Then again, sometimes all that's underneath the vulnerability is another layer of shallow bullshit. Lesson learned.

She joins him, her laughter bright, hiding its brittleness, "But, no; nothing like that. You know our Arc technology is revolutionizing the energy industry, and we're never getting back in bed with the DOD. That's the past. My company is about moving forward."

Tony turns away from her, looking out over the New York skyline.

"How like Stark; too busy looking at the future to see what's right in front of him."

"Actually, I'm calling to let you know that I've taken over as major shareholder; so you can stop pestering my staff trying to reach Tony."

"What, really?"

"Oh, yes. Tony's grown less and less interested in... the business, and I finally convinced him to sell me his shares."

Tony stares resolutely out the window, refusing to look back at her.

"So what will you do without the 'Great Tony Stark, Super Genius'?"

"Oh, I'm sure we'll still send a couple contracts his way."

Tony flinches at that and Pepper's grin is not friendly. 

"Wouldn't that be a conflict of interest, given your relationship?"

"Oh, you haven't heard? That's been over for a while. We've kept it out of the press, as you can imagine... Well, you know what that can be like."

And now she's finally broken Tony's skin, he turns to stare at her, tear stained eyes wide with hurt; as if he has the _right_ , as if she isn't justified in doing everything she can to leave him as broken and bleeding as she feels.

"Yeah, those vultures are going to have a field day when it breaks. But that's not what's important. Are _you_ okay?"

"Oh, aren't you sweet. I'm fine, Justin, thank you for asking; but like I said, it's been over for a while. Longer than I realized," she bares her teeth in a not smile as the blood drains from Tony's face.

"Well in that case, would you like to get dinner? Strictly as one professional to another?"

"Why not? Just because you and Tony never and an... amicable relationship doesn't mean you and I cant try to re-start ours on friendly ground." Okay, so it's really not fair of her to use him like this, and they've had plenty of their own run-ins before now, but if Justin is willing to let her put that all back on Tony, she's more than willing to take him up on it. Today isn't about 'fair', today is about _pain_ , and she isn't going to pass up a single opportunity to twist the knife; if she could pull the one from her back she would bury it in Tony's God damned excuse for a heart.

"Have your girl," she can hear Justin snap his fingers, "Natalie was it?"

" _Justin_ ," she reprimands him.

"I apologize, Ms. Potts, I mean your assistant."

"Thank you, Justin," Huh. So he _could_ listen. Maybe she would follow through on dinner. She practically has a Masters in training assholes to act like decent human beings, and Justin's reputation is more 'loser' than 'Lothario', so it's unlikely she'd be making the same mistake twice, "And no, Natalie moved on to bigger and better things."

"What could be better than getting to spend every day with you?"

"Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Hammer," she flirts back, drinking in the bitter hurt in Tony's eyes, "I'll have Jennifer get in touch with Bonnie and make the arrangements."

"It's a date."

"Justin," she warns again.

"A _business_ date," he corrects, "No flowers, I promise."

"That's better," she laughs again, "It's a date."

She stands as she pulls of the earpiece and disconnects the call, "Let's get these notarized, and then you can get the hell out of my Tower."

Once he's gone, she'll finish breaking down, have a good cry. Maybe pull all his concert shirts from their closet and throw them on their bed, pour his liquor cabinet over the pile and set the whole damn mess on fire.

And if she secretly fantasizes about him still being in one of those shirts, no one has to know but her.


End file.
